Well-Being and You

Now that you're a mature man, to what extent are you experiencing well-being in your life?

Well-being refers to a state of positive physical, mental, and social health, and overall life satisfaction. It encompasses a sense of purpose, fulfillment, and resilience in the face of challenges. Well-being is multi-dimensional and includes factors such as: 

• Physical health: Good physical condition, healthy habits, and low disease burden. 
• Mental health: Emotional stability, positive self-esteem, and coping skills. 
• Social health: Strong social connections, community involvement, and social support. 
• Life satisfaction: Feeling content with one's life, having a sense of purpose, and achieving personal goals. 
• Spiritual well-being: Finding meaning and purpose in life, connecting with values, and having a sense of peace. 

Promotion of well-being includes taking care of your overall health, building positive relationships, pursuing personal goals, and finding balance in all aspects of life. 

What Are the Benefits of Well-Being?

Research demonstrates that well-being is not only valuable because it feels good, but it also has beneficial real-world consequences. Compared to people with low well-being, individuals with higher levels of well-being:

• Have more satisfying relationships
• Are more cooperative
• Have stronger immune systems
• Have better physical health
• Live longer
• Have reduced cardiovascular mortality
• Have fewer sleep problems
• Have lower levels of burnout
• Have greater self-control
• Have better self-regulation and coping abilities
• Are more prosocial

The issue of how to increase your well-being is important but beyond the scope of this introductory article. However, Dr. Martin Seligman offers a framework to help you to understand what's involved. It should give you some ideas on how to increase your well-being.

Dr. Seligman's PERMA Framework for Well-Being

Dr. Seligman has identified five components that people pursue because they are intrinsically motivating and they contribute to well-being. These elements are pursued for their own sake and are defined and measured independently of each other. He refers to these elements as his PERMA Model.

These five elements of PERMA are:

• Positive emotion
• Engagement
• Relationships
• Meaning
• Accomplishments

Proactively working on the components of PERMA not only increases aspects of well-being, but also decreases psychological distress.

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P – Positive Emotion

Positive emotion is much more than mere ‘happiness.’

Positive emotions include hope, interest, joy, love, compassion, pride, amusement, and gratitude.

Positive emotions are a prime indicator of flourishing, and they can be cultivated or learned to improve well-being.

When you can explore, savor, and integrate positive emotions into your daily life (and visualizations of the rest of your life), it improves habitual thinking and acting. Positive emotions can undo the harmful effects of negative emotions and promote resilience.

Increasing positive emotions helps you build physical, intellectual, psychological, and social resources that lead to this resilience and overall well-being.

Some ways to build positive emotion:

• Spend time with people you care about.
• Do hobbies and creative activities that you enjoy.
• Listen to uplifting or inspirational music.
• Reflect on things you are grateful for and what is going well in your life.

E – Engagement

According to Dr. Seligman, engagement is "being one with the music." It is in line with Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of "flow." Flow includes the loss of self-consciousness and complete absorption in an activity. In other words, it is living in the present moment and focusing entirely on the task at hand.

Flow, or this concept of engagement, occurs when the perfect combination of challenge and skill/strength is found.

You're more likely to experience flow when you use your top character strengths. Research on engagement has found that individuals who try to use their strengths in new ways each day for a week were happier and less depressed after six months.

The concept of engagement is something much more powerful than simply "being happy," but happiness is one of the many byproducts of engagement.

Some ways to increase engagement:

• Participate in activities that you really love, where you lose track of time when you do them.
• Practice living in the moment, even during daily activities or mundane tasks.
• Spend time in nature, watching, listening, and observing what happens around you.
• Identify and learn about your character strengths, and do things that you excel at.

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R – Positive Relationships

Relationships encompass the various interactions individuals have with partners, friends, family members, colleagues, and their community at large.

Relationships in the PERMA model refer to feeling supported, loved, and valued by others. Relationships are included in the model based on the idea that humans are inherently social creatures. There is evidence of this everywhere, but social connections become particularly important as we age.

The social environment has been found to play a critical role in preventing cognitive decline, and strong social networks contribute to better physical health among older adults.

Many of us have a goal of improving relationships with those we are closest to. Research has demonstrated that sharing good news or celebrating success fosters strong bonds and better relationships. Also, responding enthusiastically to others, particularly in close or intimate relationships, increases intimacy, well-being, and satisfaction.

How to build relationships:

• Join a class or group that interests you.
• Ask questions of the people you don't know well to find out more about them.
• Create friendships with people you are acquainted with.
• Get in touch with people you have not spoken to or connected with in a while.

M – Meaning

Meaning can be thought of as belonging and/or serving something greater than yourself. Having a purpose in life helps you focus on what's really important in the face of significant challenge or adversity.

Meaning or purpose in life is unique to each of us. Meaning may be pursued through a profession, a social or political cause, a creative endeavor, or a religious/spiritual belief. It may be found through extracurricular, volunteer, or community activities.

A sense of meaning is guided by personal values. People who report having purpose in life live longer and have greater life satisfaction and fewer health problems.

Ways to build meaning:

• Get involved in a cause or organization that matters to you.
• Try new, creative activities to find things you connect with.
• Think about how you can use your passions to help others.
• Spend quality time with people you care about.

A – Accomplishments & Achievements

Accomplishment in PERMA is also known as achievement, mastery, or competence.

A sense of accomplishment is a result of working toward and reaching goals, mastering an endeavor, and having self-motivation to finish what you set out to do. This contributes to well-being because individuals can look at their lives with a sense of pride.

Accomplishment includes the concepts of perseverance and having a passion to attain goals.

But flourishing and well-being come when accomplishment is tied to striving toward things with an internal motivation or working toward something just for the sake of the pursuit and improvement. 

Some ways to build accomplishment:

• Set goals that are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound.
• Reflect on past successes.
• Look for creative ways to celebrate your achievements.

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